King Oddball throws you into the role of a giant moon like ball with a face on it who uses his tongue to throw rocks at tanks, soldiers and helicopters in order to take over the world, to what end? Only King Oddball knows. (Though I like to think that he is freeing the oppressed mustachioed people from a totalitarian government bent on making everyone shave, but that’s just me).

If you have played other physics based 2D throwing games (such as Angry Birds) you will be instantly familiar with the concept and feel right at home here. King Oddball however takes a bit of a different take on the concept by utilizing pure gravity from simply letting go of the rocks during the swing of the tongue. You progress through the game by taking out all the enemies in each level to clear the squares and then clear each sector to progress to the next one. Simple yet effective way to take over the world, destroying all the tanks and soldiers that stand in the way of the mighty King Oddball. Gameplay is incredibly simple even the youngest child could play the game, press X to release the rocks. That’s it. While that may seem overly simplified it doesn’t need anything else added and I feel that it benefits the game immensely as you don’t have to worry about learning complex control schemes and can instead focus on learning the physics of the game. And that’s really where the game comes into it’s own, the physics in King Oddball are simply perfect. Not once during my time playing did I ever feel that the rocks fell or bounced in anyway other than what I would expect them to, as that’s where physics based throwing games live or die the fact that 10 Tons have got this part so right is a huge step in the right direction.

the Game is simply great fun to play and manages to achieve that elusive ‘one more time’ dynamic that so many games strive for. Managing to clear a level using just one rock (for the most part you have 3 at your disposal) is incredibly rewarding especially if the level features 3 or more enemies achieving the elusive perfect throw where your rock manages to bounce off one tank onto another is just awesome. Some levels in fact almost require you to score a combo of 3 or more tanks in order to be awarded an extra rock or bounce the rock back so that the King catches it and can reuse it and mastering this is key to progressing in later levels. All the levels are well designed and never feel impossible or unfair at all. If you fail it’s simply because you didn’t release the rock at the correct time. Simply put King Oddball is a fun well made game with plenty of incentive to keep you playing for months and that’s what we are after as gamers right?

If you can find all the mustaches hidden within the menus you can open up another world equal in size to the main campaign and slightly harder right off the bat. There are also diamond levels where you must clear the level without using up the diamond you have in your inventory, grenade levels and one rock levels, so there is a metric ton of content here for your enjoyment and while this is technically a casual game it’s one that will keep you coming back time and time again to just have one more try at beating the level that has you stuck, and with practice surely you can help King Oddball free the oppressed mustachioed among us?

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